Subj : Re: Chinese Scientists Cr
To   : ROB MCCART
From : Mike Powell
Date : Mon Mar 03 2025 11:18:00

> MP>Funny thing, when I go on long vacations for some reason I always run into
>   >at least one person who really wants to talk politics.  From the fall of
>   >2015, every one of them has been a Trump supporter.  Here is the funny
>   >thing... *any* of them that I have managed to accidentally get talking
>   >about who they voted for in the past were *ALL* Obama voters at least one
>   >election.

> That does seem odd.. It seemed to me Obama was pretty good but you
> couldn't find someone much more different from Trump..

Politically speaking, they are different, but they do have similarities if
you look for them.  Both promised (Trump the first time) to be "different"
than other politicians, both knew very well how to work an audience, how to
use social media to their advantage, and both had campaigns that knew about
branding.  Obama was the first President where I noticed a marked amount of
things -- beyond campaign wear -- with his stylized "O" on them... hats,
t-shirts (post election), etc.  Trump's MAGA hats seem even more prevalent,
but are basically the same thing.

Like I said, I think they both appealed to Americans who were looking for
more than just a political leader... a cultural leader, a thought leader...
and both Obama and Trump found ways to fit that bill.

> RM>> I watched the 'talk' that Trump had with the president of Ukraine,
>   >> Zelenskyy and, if it had been me, I'd have called Trump an asshole
>   >> and walked out.

> MP>I think that is sort of what Zelenskyy did.  He left without attending the
>   >presser afterwards and without signing the agreement.  If I were him, I
>   >would not sign it.  I would pull a Carlos Slim and find another partner
>   >(maybe China) who would help them vs. Russia and who might also like their
>   >minerals.

> Yes, I was sort of glad to see he didn't sign the agreement. That's
> probably about as close as you could come to calling Trump a twit
> without having him attack you on stage.. It appears that a lot more
> of Europe will be supporting Ukraine (and Canada will continue) so
> maybe they can survive.

The Trump administration is now spinning this as "Zelenskyy was escorted
out by us and the presser was cancelled by us," which was not the original
story. That is their story now that several other (mostly European) leaders
have met successfully with Zelenskyy and are striking deals with him.

> Something I heard way back when that war started 3 years ago..
> First, we all probably heard that Putin said he could take over
> Ukraine in 3 days.. but what came out at that same time was he
> was already making plans to invade Poland.

> Whether true or not, if he had easily taken Ukraine I doubt he
> would have stopped there..

There were certainly threats discussed to other countries... Poland,
Finland, the Baltics... and I suspect a quick win would have emboldened
him, especially since he knew that Biden wasn't going to do anything about
it.


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